Mary Norton: A Brief Biography

Mary Norton was born on December 10th, 1903, in London, England. Her birthname was Kathleen Mary Pearson. She was the daughter of a physician. Mary grew up in a large Georgian house, located on High Street, in Leighton Buzzard. Her childhood home is now called ‘The Old House’, and is part of Leighton Middle School. Mary’s home was the basis for her children’s book, ‘The Borrowers’.

After Mary had graduated from school, she had worked as an actress with London’s Old Vic Shakespeare company. But this didn’t last very long. She met Robert Charles Norton, a rich shipping magnate. They got married on September 4, 1926. The couple moved to Portugal, where Robert did a lot of business.

The couple had four children together (two boys, and two girls). One of her sons, Robert, would later go on to be a Microsoft executive. Robert was away on business for a great deal of time, leaving Mary alone to raise the children. She quickly became lonely. Mary and her children lived in an isolated Portugal estate, outside of Lisbon. But tensions were growing, and Europe was experiencing a great deal of political issues during the ’20s, and ‘30s.

When WWII broke out, Robert Norton joined the Navy. In 1940, Mary started working at the British War Office. Robert and Mary relocated their family to the USA for some time, and she started working for the British…